Life, the universe & everything

San Francisco: Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg is making a foray into politics next month by hosting a fundraiser for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

The event to take place in Zuckerberg’s home in the California city of Palo Alto mid-February is to support the re-election bid of the high-profile Republican, who is seen as a possible future contender for US president.

Christie’s popularity has soared for his handling of the devastation inflicted on New Jersey by superstorm Sandy last year.

Zuckerberg’s relationship with Christie dates back to 2010, when the 28-year-old made a $100 million grant to a troubled New Jersey public school system. AFP

‘Cool’ schoolkids bully more

Los Angeles: Middle school students in the US indulge in bullying, whether it’s physical aggression or spreading rumours, to boost their social status and popularity, according to a new study.

Psychologists from University of California conducted the study. Each time students were asked to name the students who were considered the “coolest”, the students who “start fights or push other kids around” and the ones who “spread nasty rumours about other kids”.

Those students who were named the coolest at one time were named the most aggressive the next time, and those considered the most aggressive were more likely to be named the coolest next time.

Physical aggression and spreading rumours are rewarded by peers. PTI

Man braves storm on twig raft

Melbourne: In a daring act, a Polish man managed to sail through a cyclone and shark-infested waters on a makeshift raft made of twigs and sticks, arriving safely from Papua New Guinea to a north Australian island.

The man was found washed up in mangroves on Saibai Island in the Torres Strait, a treacherous stretch of water that lies between the two countries.

The man, who claims to be Polish, is in immigration detention after being found on Saibai Island in the Torres Strait, authorities said. PTI

NASA joins ‘dark energy’ probe

Washington: Nasa has teamed up with the European Space Agency to probe one of the most fundamental questions in modern cosmology — the existence of dark matter.

ESA’s Euclid mission, a space telescope designed to investigate the cosmological mysteries of dark matter and dark energy will launch in 2020, Nasa said.

Euclid will spend six years mapping the locations and measuring the shapes of as many as 2 billion galaxies spread over more than one-third of the sky. PTI